KOLKATA: Apple grew its India net profit for the year ended March 2017 by 44% at Rs 373.4 crore, according to the Cupertino-based iPhone maker’s latest regulatory filings made to the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

Apple India’s pace of sales growth, however, came down significantly from 40%-plus it had reported for previous five years since the company increased its focus on India even as the Chinese smartphone brigade started polarising the Indian market.

Apple India’s total income (including other income) grew by 17% to touch Rs 11,704.5 crore in FY17, up from Rs 9,997.6 crore in the previous fiscal.

Analysts believe Apple will maintain its pace of profit growth in India in 2017-18 due to highly profitable models in its portfolio despite Chinese brands increasing their share to a record 57% of the total Indian smartphone market in the just concluded fiscal, up from 53% a year earlier, as per figures revealed by Hong Kong-based researcher Counterpoint.

Apple India has ploughed back its FY17 profit into the operations, which had aggregate surplus of Rs 1,556.5 crore as of March 2017. A senior industry executive said this will be used for further expansion of local operations.

Apple India’s filings made to RoC said no dividend was paid to the parent for the fiscal under review to conserve financial resources.

The company in the RoC filing said income and consequent profits are “increasing at a consistent pace”.

Emailed queries on the financial performance sent to Apple India did not elicit any response as of press time Sunday.

Analysts say Apple India’s sales growth will remain comparatively low in 2017-18 due to higher competition, with Chinese brand One-Plus gaining significant share in the premium segment and due to higher base effect.

“The financial performance for Apple India in the last fiscal will not be much different with one of the highest profitable models in the portfolio,” Counterpoint’s associate director Tarun Pathak said. “Their installed base and average selling price too are going up in India,” he said.

Counterpoint has analysed that Apple’s iPhone X model nabbed 35% of the global smartphone market’s profit during the October-December quarter, making it the most profitable smartphone followed by iPhone 8, with 19% of the industry’s profit, and iPhone 8 Plus with 15% profit share. In fact, Apple had earned 90% of the global industry’s profits during the quarter with its entire portfolio, as per the researcher.

In FY17, Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo together had combined sales of Rs 22,527 crore, a near eight-fold jump from Rs 2,919 crore they reported in FY16, according to RoC filings.

Of the Chinese brigade, only Xiaomi is profitable in India with net profit of Rs 163.9 crore in FY17.

In the just concluded Jan-March quarter, Apple lost its leadership status in the Rs 30,000-plus segment to Samsung that captured half of the total market with its new launches, as per Counterpoint. One-Plus was in the second place with one-fourth share of the premium market, the researcher said.

Sponsored Stories

Subscribe to our Newsletters

After PSU banks, the government is likely to infuse capital in two chronically ill telecom PSUs BSNL and MTNL, and the Union Cabinet is likely to take a decision on 4G spectrum allocation to them by the third week of the current month after DoT places the note before it for consideration.

At a high-level meeting at the PMO late Tuesday, it was also decided that the two telcos will frame a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to reduce their employee strength, which will be followed by a reduction in the retirement age to 58.